Old Mutual is following through on its stated plans to brand its management under
Pilgrim Baxter. The organization is launching five new funds all sub-advised by Old Mutual managers and carrying the PBHG Funds brand. Pilgrim Baxter will not manage the assets in any of the funds.
The move marks an interesting reversal of field from the strategy followed by United Asset Management before it was purchased by Old Mutual last year. UAM had focused its marketing to the pension industry and rigidly maintained the identity of the managers it had purchased. By adopting the PBHG Funds brand, Old Mutual is hoping to build a retail identity through which it can market what have to date been institutional managers.
Each of the funds has a mandate customized to the niche of the subadvisor. All of the subadvisors are units of Old Mutual that have primarily institutional and not retail clients at this time.
The new funds were revealed in an
SEC filing that becomes effective in October. The five new funds are: PBHG Disciplined Equity Fund subadvised by
Analytic Investors, PBHG IRA Capital Preservation Fund subadvised by
Dwight Asset Management, PBHG New Perspective Fund subadvised by
NWQ Investment Management, PBHG REIT Fund subadvised by
Heitman/PRA Securities Advisors, and PBHG Clipper Focus Fund subadvised by
Pacific Financial Research.
The new funds contain an interesting mix of products. The IRA Capital Preservation fund will be one of only a handful of so-called stable value mutual funds on the market. Vermont-based Dwight Asset Management is one of the leaders in that market which so far has been limited primarily to employee-directed ERISA retirement plans.
The filings also reveal that the fund run by NWQ is targeted to close when it reaches just $500 million in assets. NWQ will invest in companies of all sizes but seek to exploit it expertise of finding special situations in which the company is undervalued.
The PHHG Clipper Focus Fund exploits the strong retail brand of the Clipper Fund which is advised by Pacific Financial Research.
Each fund will carry a PBHG Class share and an Advisor Class share. Minimum purchases of the funds will be $2,500.  
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